In Burkina Faso, gold fever has led entire families to devote themselves to searching for it in harsh conditions, children included. An NGO is there to ensure education and medical care. An editorial by Terre des Hommes.
Gold in Burkina Faso has become the country's leading export, surpassing even the cotton that was once highly sought after by foreign buyers. The illusion of easy riches has swept up tens of thousands of people who move from one region to another to dig and sift the ground at artisanal gold sites — those not exploited industrially. Around the excavation areas, entire temporary villages have sprung up, where whole families live, children included, in extremely harsh conditions.
Everyone plays their part: men and older boys squeeze into narrow, dangerous shafts and extract material, while women break up clods of earth, carry water and sift the soil. Children help too, with tasks more or less demanding, spending all their time in the search for the precious metal, leaving games and school behind. "That is why we wanted to create a project dedicated to them," says Gisèle Thombiano, head of Terre des Hommes Italia's projects in Burkina Faso.
Our foundation's new intervention, funded by EuropeAid, has created safe spaces for children around ten mines — the "houses of the sun" — where mothers can confidently leave their children with teachers and activity leaders and return to their own work. "In this way we can be sure that children are not exposed to danger by helping with gold extraction, while at the same time they can learn to read and do arithmetic. For the older ones there are general knowledge lessons, as well as recreational, sporting and musical activities," Gisèle continues.
"These spaces allow us to get to know families better and identify any particularly vulnerable cases that need special attention. Very often, children have no identity documents, which means they cannot even enjoy their most basic rights. We therefore set about tracking down and certifying birth certificates or, in the case of 200 children who had none, registering them in the civil register. In the same spaces, twice a month, healthcare workers are available to provide medical check-ups for children and families. Unfortunately, work in the mines is extremely dangerous and accidents, including fatal ones, occur frequently, so this provision — guaranteed through an agreement with the provincial health directorate — is essential."
The project has promoted the establishment of protection and monitoring committees involving representatives of gold prospectors, landowners, members of villages near the mine, women and minors. In this way they become the point of reference for resolving conflicts between people and preventing episodes of violence, including domestic violence.
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"One of the results we are particularly proud of is having managed to prevent five forced marriages involving five girls aged 10 to 12, who had been promised by their families to much older men. It is unfortunately a cultural issue that, through awareness-raising activities with parents and the girls themselves, we are trying to change. It was precisely the committee members who alerted us, and so we were able to act quickly to protect the girls."
The common thread in favour of women runs throughout the project, which has been able to extend credit to 90 mothers to start a micro-enterprise, mainly in small-scale trade and catering, with a commitment to send their children to school. A further 405 have joined savings groups set up as part of the project. "People who work at gold sites cannot count on a reliable income," explains Gisèle. "Sometimes months go by before any gold is found, so you end up without money, and then perhaps you strike lucky and have nowhere safe to keep your earnings. Thanks to the savings groups, members can borrow from or lend to one another, without having to rely on intermediaries."
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